The present invention relates to a system for automatically drafting documents. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system for automatically preparing and generating the text of complex documents which have alternative text provisions, insertable text and/or multiple provisions that are selected in response to information relevant to the preparation of the document, such as a legal document. Even more particularly, the present invention relates to a system for generating, in response to user input to a series of dynamically alterable questions, documents such as legal documents, for example, loan commitment letters for use in a commercial lending transaction. The present invention allows complex documents of the type described to be generated efficiently based upon providing responses to a series of questions, which questions automatically change and the response to which format not only the document under creation, but the series of questions to be asked, based upon the answers to previous questions. In essence, the present invention mimics or emulates what a draftsperson does in drafting a complex, customized document. The system of the invention comprises an artificial intelligence system or expert system.
There is a need for a document preparation system which efficiently automatically generates documents, for example, legal documents such as loan commitment letters. Today, documents of this type, for example, loan commitment letters, are typically prepared by selecting a form and/or examples of such letters from prior transactions and then “cutting and pasting” the required provisions into the document, modifying those provisions to reflect the terms of the financing and then editing the entire agreement.
An aim of the present invention is to change how documents are prepared by utilizing the power of a complete programming environment to manipulate a full word processing application to create the document.
By utilizing the word processing and storage capacity of both a word processing environment such as Microsoft Word and a data base, an extensive number and variety of provisions can be included in the document generated. In addition, these provisions can be modified or supplemented by the user.
There is a need for a system which can efficiently access such provisions to create a tailored document, such as a loan commitment letter. In addition, there is a need for an automated document drafting system which will be able to manipulate the underlying documents so that after each response is given, all the required changes to the document will be made which are affected by the response.
To applicant's knowledge, there are no such systems available today. Products such as “Hot Docs” allow a user to create a program to interface with a word processing program to manipulate a document, but these systems do not take full advantage of a programming environment to control a word processing environment and of a database to manipulate a document. Accordingly, those systems are incapable of efficiently preparing a complex document because they do not have the ability to utilize all the functionality of a full programming environment and database. For example, systems of the prior art are not capable of using all logical functions and/or combinations of logical functions and/or embedded such logical functions of a full programming environment at all stages of document preparation to generate the desired document. In particular, such prior art systems are not capable of using combinations of such logical functions or using such logical functions in a manner such that logical functions are nested within each other. This allows the full advantage of using a full programming environment to control a full word processing environment to be achieved.
Additionally, systems of the prior art are not capable of tailoring the requests for information necessary to prepare the document so that, once an approach to preparation of the document is taken, the system dynamically tailors the questions asked so that unnecessary questions are not asked and so that the critical information necessary is obtained efficiently. For example, the program that “Hot Docs” creates to generate a document will present a series of questions to the user to enable generation of the document but this prior art program does not allow, to applicant's knowledge, dynamically altering the series of questions asked so that unnecessary, inconsistent or redundant questions are not asked after the user has already provided information. To applicant's knowledge, the “Hot Docs” program will still require the user to go through a structured series of questions. Hot Docs does present additional questions to the user at times, but does not have the flexibility to achieve greater efficiency by dynamically altering the sequence of questions asked in response to previous answers.
Accordingly, there is a need for a document preparation system that takes full advantage of a programming environment to manipulate a word processing environment to prepare and generate a document. Further, there is a need for such a system that allows a user to answer a series of questions to create the document and which dynamically, in response to questions previously answered, alters and determines the series of questions which are asked to obtain the information to create the final document and determines when and how to alter the document in response to information provided in response to the questions.